The Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Tamale North Constituency, Haruna Iddrisu has called the bluff of the Minister for Roads and Highways to suspend road tolls without recourse to Parliament.
According to him, the Minister is not clothed with any such powers to determine fees and charges and therefore cannot arbitrarily announce the suspension of road tolls on the back of the Budget presentation.
The Minority Leader raised the issue on the Floor of Parliament on Thursday, November 18, 2021 just at the beginning of Parliamentary sittings of the day.
It would be recalled that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, in the presentation of the Government’s Economic Policy for the year 2022 on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 indicated that as a policy, all road tolls will be abolished to ease traffic on the roads.
Subsequent to the policy proposal by the Government which is expected to take effect from January, 2022, there is a press release under the signature of the Road Minister, Kwesi Amoako Atta, directing that all road tolls be suspended with effect from November 18, 2021.
According to the Minority Leader, Ghanaians should ignore the directive of the Roads and Highways Minister because it has no standing in law.
Contributing to the statement on the Floor, the Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea pleaded with the House to give the Minister the benefit of the doubt because it could be an administrative error.
The MP for Adaklu, Governs Kwame Agbodza on his part indicated that the Minister should be made to rescind his decision with immediate effect.
Source: Clement Akoloh||parliamentnews360.com
